June 7

Fukushima - Tendo Onsen


Well.........  I'm a bit sleep-deprived today.  Our little room was waaay too warm last night and I think I got about 3 hours of sleep.  Not ideal to cycle on..........

We took about 10 km or so to get out of the city.  Much of that route was on bike lanes.  Looks like we're riding the wrong kind of bike, though.  We're missing the basket on the front........


The day was pretty cloudy/misty, and I was just hoping that we wouldn't have to ride through the same mist that we encountered yesterday afternoon.  The temperature was good, though.  Mid-teens through most of the morning although it felt warm with the high humidity.  The afternoon seemed less humid but warmer, with temps up to 29C.  Thankfully not much climbing in the afternoon, though.


Lots of agriculture in the area.  Many orchards in addition to the many rice paddies.  I saw my first cherries.  




Not sure what all the other orchards were.  AI tells me that Fukushima is known as the "fruit kingdom of Japan".  Fruits grown here include:  strawberries, cherries, peaches, pears, apples, and grapes.  

We started riding through a huge gorge, which culminated at the Surikamigawa Dam and power plant. 


















 The reservoir is over 5 km long and has lots of fingers; we crossed over a few.








Our daily road-side shrine.


Upriver from the dam we continued to be in a bit of a gorge, with steep cliffs above us to our right.  I was fascinating by the retaining walls that they have built.





More climbing on quiet roads before lunch.







Then we had a fabulous long and winding descent on a very quiet road coming into lunch.  The hairpin turns were numbered, and there were more than 35.  I didn't see any monkeys or bears today, but some people got some great shots of some monkeys.  Lots of monkey poop around, and several lots of bear scat on this long descent.  This sign is from the bottom of that road.


Lunch was in the backyard of a Shogun Museum on the edge of Kaminoyama.  The museum itself had a lot of interesting artifacts, but the highlight was the animated older Japanese man who gave us a tour.  He explained everything in rapid Japanese with lots of arm and body action to help demonstrate what he was talking about.  The only words I understood were "Japanese", "shogun", and "China".  We just nodded enthusiastically.  He was impressed with our strong legs; I think we made his day.


A couple of other sights riding through Kaminoyama.  








Mostly rural agriculture and some small towns from this point on until we reached a berm to ride on at about 85K for about 10km.  I did some bonus miles getting around a closure on the berm path.  Apparently we could ride through the closure, but I didn't get the What'sApp message on my phone.  Oh - and significant headwind through this section; ;ugh........



We did have a bit of sunshine in the afternoon, but at the end of the day the clouds were still hanging pretty low.  After the berm was a riverside bike path for a while, and finally a bit of urban riding to get to our hotel.  I was late getting in, so no time for the onsen before dinner.  Dinner, BTW, was fabulous. 



I popped into the onsen after dinner but it was way too hot for me to be interested.  I'll try to catch up on some sleep tonight.  Another big day tomorrow, although most of us will take advantage of a 38K shuttle to shorten the day.  


Stats for the Day:

Garmin:  107.5 km.  4210 feet up.  4117 feet down.

RWGPS:  111.0 km.  1812 m up.  1776 m down.



Tendo

Population:  62,000

Japan.travel:  Tendo is a city located in Yamagata Prefecture.  Tendo is Yamagata's land of fruit, home to vast orchards producing cherries and pears and one of the prefecture's premier hot spring resorts.  It's also famous for the Japanese chess game called shogi.  Since 1911, more than 11 Japanese-style inns and two public bathing centres welcome tourists and locals in Tendo.  From foot baths to sprawling outdoor hot springs you'll find plenty of opportunities to submerge yourself during your stay in the city.  




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